— Everyone knows Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez didn't have his finest game as a pro Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

Everyone should also know that he and the Eagles were due for a game like that, which made his errors seem more extreme because of the lopsided result.

Because of the way the game snowballed out of control so early, any judgment of the "Sanchize" has to be tempered with that realization.

Fact: Sanchez completed his first two passes, then was dinged on a vicious and illegal but unpenalized helmet-to-helmet sack by Letroy Guion. His third pass sailed over the head of Darren Sproles, who was coming out of the backfield on what Sanchez obviously thought was a wheel route. Sproles, however, broke off the route as the pass was thrown, an obvious miscommunication.

Fourth down.

At that point, Matt Barkley actually began taking warmup throws as the Eagles feared a neck injury for Sanchez.

By the time Sanchez next touched the ball, the Eagles were down 10-0. It wasn't until then that he made his first egregious mistake, double-clutching on a third-down pass attempt while failing to spot Jordan Matthews popping wide open for what would have been a huge gain on a slant over the middle. Sanchez was sacked instead.

Fourth down.

Undaunted, Sanchez moved the Eagles, trailing by 17 to start their third possession, to within 5 yards of a touchdown when he booted out of a play-fake to LeSean McCoy right into the body of unblocked Clay Matthews, who might be the NFL's finest defensive player — yet another ill-advised play call by coach Chip Kelly at the goal line that resulted in three points instead of seven.

Staring at a 24-3 deficit the next time they touched the ball, the Eagles faced a third-and-6 from the Packers' 48 when Sanchez was on the money with a deep pass to an open Matthews, who dropped it.

Fourth down.

You see where we're going with this?

Yes, this travesty of a performance by the Eagles had very little to do with the Sanchize, who nevertheless is unfairly credited with most of the blame.

There's more.

With the Eagles now trailing by 27, still in the first half, Sanchez on his next series hit Zach Ertz for a 15-yard gain and Matthews for a 40-yard gain on back-to-back plays that gave the Eagles a first down at the 15.

First down: Incomplete pass to Matthews, who was double-covered in end zone.

Second down: Sanchez was pressured into overthrowing Riley Cooper in the end zone.

Third down: Sanchez was forced by a jailbreak pass rush to throw it away after Cooper apparently fell asleep and failed to respond to Sanchez's repeated hand signal to start in motion. So the play was broken before the snap.

Fourth down.

At that point, Kelly made a sad statement about how little faith he had in his offense, calling for a field goal that made it 30-6.

Seriously.

In the third quarter, Sanchez was inexplicably credited with a fumble on a handoff to McCoy before making an awful throw that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Julius Peppers, but the game was out of reach by then.

And on the second interception he threw, the officials failed to notice Tramon Williams interfere with Jeremy Maclin after Maclin lost his footing on the slick turf, which was an issue all night.

Not making excuses here, but Sanchez didn't play nearly as poorly as the stats (26-for-44, 346 yards, two TDs, two interceptions) and score indicate.

Sanchez obviously is not the kind of quarterback who can carry a team by himself, but you can win with him with the kind of help that is not unreasonable to expect every week from this team.

This week, that help wasn't there, and so the team failed.

"I thought the game plan was good, I thought the week of prep was perfect," Sanchez said. "I thought we came in here with the right mindset, but sometimes that's the way that it goes. They played outstanding and we played pretty poorly."

There has been no regression with Sanchez back to his butt-fumble days with the New York Jets, and there likely never will be as long as he remains in this system.

It just might have looked that way to the naked eye.

Furthermore, there is little chance that the team will devolve into the kind of splintered, dysfunctional reality TV show that is the Washington Redskins, in case you're paying attention to what's going on down there with former Eagle DeSean Jackson and Robert Griffin III and the rest of the merry troupe under rookie coach Jay Gruden.

This team will rally behind Sanchez, give him the support he needs next week and keep itself in command of the NFC East heading into Dallas on Thanksgiving.

That's when this season really begins.

That's when we'll be able to start saying with any certainty whether Sanchez is a savior, a bum or something in the middle.

"I think we've got a bunch of real professionals in that locker room and I think the one thing that they understand is that we stick together," Kelly said Monday. "We lost ... as a coaching staff, as a special teams team, as an offensive team, and as a defensive team. It's not a finger-pointing operation. I think we all contribute to our wins, and we've all contributed to our losses.

"As long as we stick together, our opportunity is to go out and play against the Tennessee Titans [next week]. Our opportunity shouldn't be to go out and play against each other."